Emiya Clan: Devil's Wings
by Trooper1023
Summary: Shirou Emiya survived the 5th Heaven's Feel and the Sekirei plan, attracting multiple women with his determination and drive along the way. Now, his children are growing up. Follow Shinta, son of Musubi, as he comes into his own. In Flight continuation.
1. Chapter 1

_Devil's Wings 1_

By Trooper1023

This fan-fanfic is brought to you by the EMIYA CLAN scenario and its many contributors, from Gabriel Blessing's "Mechanics of In Flight" forum.

"[Look out!]" - dialogue in English (as opposed to Japanese)

"|Look out!|" - dialogue via telepathy

{word} - an instance of a word that is has more than one possible translation between Japanese and Mid-Childan Common, and is uncertain in meaning through a Mid-Standard translation spell.

"{Hello.}" - dialogue via telephone

* * *

><p>Rin Tohsaka-Emiya looked up from her desk to see Musubi's son peering through the doorway to her study. "Something you need, Shinta-kun?"<p>

A little short for his age but stockily-built, Shinta Emiya stuffed his hands in the pockets of his shorts and scuffed one foot on the floor in front of him. "I'm booooooored, Rin-kaa..."

Rin turned to face the boy a little more fully, and noted the lack of the usual grass stains and traces of dirt on his clothes and body. "No one to run around with? Or spar?"

Shinta shook his head, pouting.

"Bored of the city library, too?"

He nodded, looking even more sulky now.

Rin cocked an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right?"

"Age limited access," Shinta replied with a grumble. "Last time I tried to borrow a book, the library staff smiled that stupid 'kiddie' smile at me and told me to try again when I was older."

Rin's other eyebrow lifted as well, not even saying a word, but Shinta got it.

"Chemical compounds... You know, after Karin-nee and Keiko-nee—"

The magus wife of Shirou Emiya sighed at the mention of her daughter and Ashikabi to her own half-sister, returning to the spread of documents before her. "Right, well... Why not the family library?"

This caused Shinta to seemingly perk up. "Oh, oh! Does this mean I can get that book on third-stage Reinforcement?"

Rin stopped writing, put the pen down slowly, and turned to give the boy a flat stare.

Shinta's mock-eager expression immediately flattened out. "_Of course_ I can," he continued in a dead-pan tone.

Rin scowled, pushed her chair back and stood up. "Don't be sarcastic with me, young man!"

To her mild surprise, Shinta actually flinched. "S-sorry, Rin-kaa-san... It's just..."

Taking in Shinta's honestly contrite and remorseful posture, Rin sighed again, recognizing the sarcasm for what it covered: frustration. "You really _are_ bored, huh..." Turning, she raised a hand to her mouth in thought. "Well, how about a little trip up to the Uminari University Library?"

"Wha—?"

"Chiho and I are paying a visit to the University Hospital to look into an unusual case... I can drop you off at the campus library and pick you up later—just as long as you promise to stay out of trouble."

"Yeeeeesss!" Eager again, this time genuinely, Shinta bounced on his feet and threw a fist into the air.

* * *

><p>Shinta's ears twitched, his head snapping up from the book he was reading. It wasn't an actual sound, but a phantom one... meaning magic.<p>

_'Where's all that prana coming from?'_

* * *

><p>Yuuno Scrya knew this would happen sooner or later. But no, he just had to take responsibility for that Lost Logia getting, well, <em>lost<em>...

The last of the magical binds gave way and the monstrous manifestation of the Jewel Seed lashed out at Yuuno with a spectral arm. Sealing spell only half-completed, he braced himself for the coming impact—

"Look out!"

...Only to be blindsided from a different direction. Yuuno felt his hair ruffle from the missed attack as another body collided with his, carrying both out of the way.

Curling his body, Shinta rolled both him and the skinny blonde boy upright, planted his feet and gripped the other tightly, and _leaped_. Just in time, too, as the furry-monster-blob-thing plowed into the ground beneath them.

Bouncing from tree branch to branch with the other boy flapping behind him, Shinta scowled mightily. "I've got to ask you: what kind of idiot magus just stands there and takes it if their spells doesn't work. Shinta Emiya, you?"

Twitch. "Yuuno Scrya, and I'm an archaeologist, confound-it, not a combat mage!"

"Oh. So, what is that thing, anyway? And why are you waving that gem around? Looks kinda girly..."

"Well..."

"[I AM NOT GIRLY. I AM ELEGANT.]"

"Eeeh! It talks?"

Sigh. "Raging Heart..."

"...Did the Kaleidostick _spawn_ when Rin-kaa-chan wasn't looking?" Shinta muttered, while the blonde boy blinked at the unfamiliar reference.

Then the two were under assault once more. Yuuno took to the air, not noticing Shinta's double-take until the manifested Jewel Seed slammed the other boy off the tree branch he had paused atop. _'Oh no!' _Seeing Shinta hit the trunk of another tree hard enough to send splinters of bark everywhere, Yuuno winced. The wince turned into an open-mouthed gape as Shinta shrugged off the impact with a grunt, which widened further as Yuuno realized something else. "Y-you're not using a Barrier Jacket?"

_'Ignore the flying now, ask later...Thank Kaa-chan for Sekirei power, and thank Tou-san for second-stage self-Reinforcement; my body's bones and muscles, plus the fabric of my clothes and the stitching, are a lot tougher thanks to them,'_ thought Shinta as he levered himself up and kicked off the tree, evading another swipe from the spectral blob. Vaguely, he heard Yuuno ask something about a jacket, but Shinta was more intent on the 'sound' of the blob's prana.

_'When it hit me, all that 'noise' resolved into words for an instant. Hate, betrayer, stop, die, knife... A vengeful yurei? How's it becoming solid so frequently? Though, having so much prana might explain that...' _In between dodging more powerful but clumsy swipes, Shinta shouted out a question. "Know anything about vengeance spirits, Yuuno-san?"

"...Didn't the TSAB list this world as Gregorian? Low-magic, high industry? But he's magically hardening his body and then physically attacking... like a Saint Church monk without a weapon. Ancient Belka? Did a colony of mage-knights end up as refugees here? What is going on?" Yuuno murmured in confusion while hovering overhead. He forced his mouth shut and considered what he was seeing as the other boy moved with speed and power, though not with the degree of polished precision he'd seen at that Saint Church combat exhibition of the Belkan style of magic a while ago. _'Wait, he just asked me something.'_ "A vengeance spirit? You think—"

Shinta ducked one particularly wild swipe, stepped in, and punched into the thing's center of mass. His fist passed into it like a knife through molasses, seemingly doing nothing more than aggravating it. Shinta scowled mightily as he was forced to retreat from two flailing 'arms' with a high backflip. "That's what it feels like... way too much prana though."

"{Prana}? You mean {maryoku}?"

"[UPDATING TRANSLATION: 'PRANA' AS TERM FOR {MAGICAL POWER}.]"

"Ah, thanks Raging Heart. Right, a Jewel Seed reacts to emotions by emitting raw prana, and the vengeance spirit must have absorbed this one. I have to seal the Jewel Seed itself, but..."

"Damned yurei won't hold still for ya, eh?" Shinta finished the statement, while darting in to throw another experimental punch. _'Great, where's a good miko when ya need one—Eh?'_

Something more substantial than prana brushed across his fist. Backstep, dodge, shift, lunge. Striking with an open hand this time, Shinta felt the something in his palm and closed his hand around it, then withdrew as fast as he was able.

Yuuno saw the sudden change in tactics and reacted. "Ring Bind, Ring Bind, Ring Bind—Triple Binding!" Three rings formed at perpendicular angles around the Jewel Seed manifestation—yurei, as Shinta called it—and snapped tight. Gritting his teeth, Yuuno pushed his gift for multitasking to its limits, continuously updating the arrays of all three spells simultaneously instead of trying to overpower the yurei with a single spell. _'It's holding for now, but...'_

"[YOU HAVE INSUFFICIENT AVAILABLE PRANA FOR A COMPLETE SEALING WHILE MAINTAINING THIS BINDING.]"

"I realize that, Raging Heart. Shinta, what have you got there?"

Keeping an eye on the restrained yurei, Shinta opened his fist to reveal a crumpled scrap of traditionally-made paper. What intrigued him was the 'sound' of the bit of prana still contained in the scrap. Specifically, the 'words' he could just barely make out:

_RepelHopeLightPurifyRelease_

"A Shinto ward? Inside a yurei, but still with a bit of power? Then..."

* * *

><p><em>"Your power is not constrained by chants or mantras. If you can imagine it, your power will take that shape or form. Usually."<em>

_"Thanks, Homura-kaa."_

* * *

><p><em>"Alteration is a spell that grants a property or concept to something that doesn't naturally have it."<em>

_"We get it, Lorelei-kaa."_

* * *

><p><em>"Sekirei ability seems to be an innate capability to convert prana into a specific concept. Using Alteration to temporarily modify the conversion process is a clever idea, Shinta-kun, but you aren't the first to think of it. Takeshi-kun has tried something similar but found it impractical and wasteful of prana. If you are thinking of experimenting with it yourself, why don't you ask him about it? Just be intelligent about what you attempt to alter, ok? No blowing yourself up the way, ahem, some of your older siblings do."<em>

_"Sure thing, Tou-san."_

* * *

><p>Out of the corner of his eye, Yuuno saw Shinta's limbs begin to glow with a soft white light.<p>

Then yurei let off a psychic shriek and Yuuno flinched, his concentration disturbed. The binding weakened momentarily, then snapped before he could compensate. "Shinta, look out!" He pushed his flight spell, diving toward the other boy, but he quickly realized he wouldn't make it in time—

Shinta, on the other hand, grinned and counter-struck. There was a fading flash as his foot arced through the yurei's spectral form, but Shinta felt substantially more resistance this time.

The yurei let off another soundless shriek, while Yuuno pulled out of his dive to watch in bewilderment as the other boy wound up and punched again, with a brighter flash than the last. This time, the yurei recoiled slightly.

"One more time!" Duck, dive-and-roll, hop-to-the-side, high-jump, twist, land, spin and kick!

With a hissing snap, Shinta's glowing foot connected solidly with the spectral surface of the yurei, causing both to recoil several meters. _'Wasn't easy to get my own light 'sounding' like the ward's fading magic, but now...'_

"Hokay, ugly—Round Two! Muda muda mudamudamudamuda** mudaah!**"

Yuuno felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face, watching as the native boy-mage and Jewel Seed-empowered spirit began wailing on each other with spectral limbs and illuminated fists and feet... and knees... and elbows... _'What kind of fighting style is that?' _The medic-in-training within Yuuno's mind cringed as it mapped the other boy's physical attacks onto a human opponent and how much damage they would inflict. Then he shook it off. _'Now is not the time, seal the Logia first!'_

"Breath of creation, gather from the space between worlds! Artifact of antiquity, purge the echoes of mortal feeling and stand apart! Jewel Seed Seal!"

* * *

><p>Ten minutes and three more failed sealing attempts later...<p>

"This..." Yuuno began with a grimace, seeing the manifestation of the Jewel Seed buck off Shinta and then break out of his latest sealing spell, yet again, "Is not working..."

Shinta hit the ground on his back and bounced, flipping back up on to his feet with a growl as frustration mounted. "Ya think? One amateur magi and one fist fighter with some minor magecraft... No way this could go wrong, huh?" _'Maybe I should call Rin-kaa and just get it over with...'_

Yuuno opened his mouth to reply, but Raging Heart preempted him.

"[OUR COMPATIBILITY IS INSUFFICIENT FOR THE NEEDED CASTING EFFICIENCY REQUIRED BY OUR CURRENT TACTIC, MY BEARER, WHILE THE OTHER'S STYLE OF MAGIC IS UNKNOWN AND DOES NOT SEEM GIVEN TO ATTEMPT SYNCHRONIZATION. WE HAVE TWO OPTIONS: RETREAT OR ACQUIRE ADDITIONAL PRANA FROM A THIRD SOURCE. RETREAT IS RECOMMENDED.]"

The two boys exchanged looks, and reached the same conclusion simultaneously. Retreat was _not_ an option.

* * *

><p>"Ano, Nanoha-chan, Arisa-chan? I really don't think we should go this way, today..."<p>

"Eh? Why not, Suzuka?"

"I heard a crashing sound a while ago… There's another—Nanoha-chan?"

"...I hear someone calling for help." Nanoha Takamachi considered for a moment, then decided. Leaping off the path, she darted into the forest, leaving her friends behind.

* * *

><p>"[NEW MAGICAL SIGNATURE DETECTED.]"<p>

"New—? Argh, what now!"

"Um... What's going on?" The brawl before Nanoha's eyes stilled for a moment. She could see two boys, one hanging in mid-air, while the other, who was in the middle of grappling with a monstrous ball of... something, suddenly met her eyes. His face suddenly paled, before turning bright red.

Then the monster lunged for _her_, and the orange haired boy lunged at it, intercepting it with a flying tackle. "Go for it, Yunno! We got nothing to lose by trying!" Both blurred together in a tangle of spectral limbs, scraps of cloth, and a few flecks of blood.

"Right!" 'Yuuno' flew (literally!) toward Nanoha, touched down, and thrust a small red gem into her hands. He then whirled about, spreading both hands as a green circle with strange letters appeared underneath him. "Chain Bind!"

Glowing chains sprouted from beneath the monster, restraining it enough that the orange-haired boy was able to wrestle out from its grasp. His hands started to glow again, as he turned around and resumed grappling with the thing. His feet sank holes into the forest ground, yet amazingly he didn't buckle under what had to have been an immense amount of pressure.

_'What is going on here...?'_ Nanoha thought to herself, looking down at the flawless gemstone. "It's warm..."

Then it spoke, and Nanoha almost dropped it. "[NEW USER DETECTED. MAGICAL POWER: HIGH. COMPATIBILITY: VERY HIGH.]" It was the same bell-like voice from before.

Yuuno smiled, but his eyes were sad. "So, you'll lend us your power?"

Nanoha was dumbfounded, flashing back to her conversation with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan earlier that day. "Power? I don't have any power... I'm just a normal girl... Right?"

"[INCORRECT.]"

The blonde boy continued speaking. "Miss, I came here to search for something dangerous from another world. It escaped from the seals I placed on it, and fell through dimensions to this one. Reapplying those seals, however, proved to be too much for me to do alone. I've found one native ally, but even with the two of us... I understand it'd be a problem for you, but—"

There was a crash, followed by a shouted exclamation. "Damnit, Yuuno! Quit it with the exposition and either recruit her, or get her out of here! Just don't let... hurt..." The rest of the sentence was lost in the monster's shrieking howl, and one of the chains snapped, throwing the grappling boy away. He quickly bounced back, however, and jumped impossibly high, his bright orange hair rippling in the wind, to snag the loose end of the chain as light flared around his hands. Rather than continuing to fade away, that section of chain remained partially wrapped around the monster. He landed and pulled, hard, and the glowing chain went taut once again. Both boys grunted with the strain of holding the monster in place.

Yuuno spoke again. "P-please. I promise I'll repay you... for you to use your {mahou} to aid me—us!"

"Magic...? Ah, T-this isn't the time to be talking about that, is it? What am I supposed to do?"

"That red gem I gave you: hold that in your hands, close your eyes, and focus your mind and spirit. And then, repeat after me. Understand?"

Nanoha closed her hand around the gem and its faint pinkish glow. "Eeeh? Um, ah, y-yes!"

"Here we go!"

_I, the one who accepted this mission, by the ancient contract, order you to release your power._

As Nanoha repeated each line, the glow brightened and pulsed. "[STANDBY.]"

_The wind is in the sky, the stars are in the heavens, and a resolute heart beats within my chest!_

Something within her began to resonate with the pulse of the gem, like a second heartbeat. "[READY.]"

_This magic in my hand..._ _Raging Heart, Set Up!_

"[ACTIVATION CONFIRMED. SET UP – BARRIER JACKET.]"

Yuuno felt his jaw slacken again as pinkish light washed all the other colors of the world away. _'What is up with this world? First, a boy as strong and fast as a monk from the Saint Church who fights with no weapon but his body; and now, a girl with more magical power than I've ever seen...'_ "Focus, and picture it in your mind: the staff that is Raging Heart, and armor or robes that will protect your body!"

"Ano... Asking me to do that all of a sudden... Um, um..." Several ideas flickered through Nanoha's mind, and she quickly settled on one that matched with the staff she saw in her mind. "I-I'll go with that for now!" The pink glow of her magic faded away, and Nanoha found herself garbed in a brilliant white seifuku with blue trim and a red ribbon at her breast, and a skirt just past knee-length in equally brilliant white and the same style and color trim. On her feet were white boots with blue trim and a gold plate across the upper instep. In her hand was a staff of white and grey, with a circular head in shining gold around a flawless red gem bigger than her fist. "Aah... W-what's with this outfit?" It was vaguely reminiscent of her school uniform, but more ornate and with all the little flourishes she had day-dreamed up for her own amusement.

"[I, RAGING HEART, ACCEPT YOU AS MY MASTER.]"

"O-oh... Um, right, so, how can I help?"

There was a moment of utter silence in the clearing. It was broken when the orange-haired boy gave a groan that sounded half way between humorous and horrified. "Yuuno... A {mahou shoujo}? Really!-?"

Nanoha blushed brightly, clutching at the staff and shifting from foot to foot in an extremely cute manner.

"Shinta... What in the Dimensional Sea is a—"

"[ROUGH TRANSLATION: MAGICAL GIRL.]"

"So, it an accurate description then...?" Taking in Shinta's expression, Yuuno frowned. "...It must be a culture thing."

Shinta's flat stare abruptly morphed into a smirk. "De Culture!"

Then the monster shrieked again, the chains shattered, and it turned and fled, nearly running over Shinta in the process.

"Ah, it's getting away!"

"Confounded Jewel Seed...!" Yuuno ran over to check on Shinta, who waved him off and kip-upped onto his feet. "We have to—"

"—Introduce ourselves to the poor girl before she gets any more confused, Yuuno-san," Shinta said with a slap on the other boy's back.

"But..."

"Shinta Emiya. Mr. Eager over here is Yuuno Scrya. Nice to meet you." Shinta said, giving a simple bow while awkwardly dragging the other boy into a similar posture and ignoring his surprised squawk.

"Ah!" Nanoha smiled at the display of manners, and bowed in return. "Nanoha Takamachi. It's nice to meet you too."

Yuuno straightened himself up, a bright blush of his own decorating his face. "Ah... I'm sorry if I've been kind of rude," that last bit was said with a mild glare at Shinta, "but the Jewel Seeds were originally found and excavated by myself, and I can't help but feel responsible for any damage or injuries they cause..."

Seeing the glare, Shinta realized with a guilty start that _he_ had been a bit rude himself to Yuuno as well... _'Note to self, apologize for that later. Though, right now...'_ "So, sealing strategy. First, we run the yurei down. I'll hit it as hard as I can, try to keep it reeling. Yuuno-san, that triple binding seemed to work better than your other spells, so use that. Takamachi-san—"

"Ano, it's ok if you call me name."

Shinta felt his blush from earlier come back with a vengeance plus heavy interest. "—Nanoha-san will hang back... Actually, hold up." The gaping hole in the plan chased the blush from Shinta's face in an instant. "How exactly is she going to seal the Jewel Seed, anyway?"

Yuuno, however, responded calmly. "I've already loaded the Jewel Seed Seal spell I created into Raging Heart's memory. The Device will handle the casting, so Nanoha only has to provide enough... prana... for it to work. Fortunately, she has a huge amount of it, more than I do."

Shinta's left eye twitched, seeing Nanoha blush at Yuuno's familiar form of address. His mind backtracked to earlier in the battle. _'Updating translation? So that talking mystic code that he says can cast spells on its own has been running a translation spell for him this whole time? No, that's not right either; he handed it off to Nanoha-san and kept right on talking... Well, whatever it is, it's probably not his fault he doesn't know how to use honorifics properly. Getting mad about it won't help, so stop it!'_ Finished berating himself, Shinta continued. "Ok then, last question: how is Nanoha-san going to keep up with you and me?"

"[FLIER FIN.]"

"W-waaah! I-I'm flying?"

Shinta felt envy bubble inside him for a moment, before turning to gauge Yuuno's reaction. The other boy was gaping open-mouthed.

"So," Shinta asked in an aside to Yuuno, after applying an elbow to other boy's ribs, "flying really isn't _that_ easy?"

Yuuno shook his head. "No, it's not. But, she..."

"Yeah."

* * *

><p>Shinta paced Yuuno and Nanoha from below, his Reinforced limbs and inherited strength letting him bound through the forest canopy at a good clip. He kept an eye on Nanoha, though, as the girl had a tendency to forget their current task and just enjoy flying through the air. At first she had been hesitant and more than a bit wobbly, but that had passed.<p>

"I see it!" shouted Yuuno, changing his course.

Nanoha matched it. "Ah! The old shrine on the hill!"

Shinta's eyes narrowed with concern as he followed the other two. "Careful!" He saw Yuuno nod in acknowledgement, then...

"|ESTABLISHING THIRD POINT OF CONTACT.|"

"|Careful of the shrine, or the yurei, Shinta?|"

"|Eh?|"

Shinta almost missed his landing on the next branch in his path, surprised by the three-way mental contact. He recovered quickly, however, though a vein visibly throbbed on his forehead. "|A bit of warning before tapping my headspace would have been nice. You and me, miss gem stone, have _got_ to work on our communication.|"

Raging Heart seemingly ignored the quip, so Shinta returned to his previous thought. "|Land just outside the gate at the top of the steps to avoid startling the shrine priestess. I figure she's the one who made the paper ward I grabbed earlier, so...|"

Yuuno picked up on Shinta's line of thinking. "|That _would_ explain the barrier surrounding the... shrine, through which the yurei just punched a hole. It's regrettable, but I won't be able to raise my own once we enter... That hole is already closing, and anything I try of the same sort would just interfere. That could get very messy, very quickly...|"

"|Wait, so miko really do have psychic powers?|" Nanoha asked.

"|Nanoha-san... after this is over, we need to have a long talk about the secrecy of magic, and why. But right now...|" Shinta grit his teeth and focused. His magic circuits warmed, then grew hot, as Shinta pushed prana and light out into the space around his limbs, shaping it in the way he knew best. "|...We've got a yurei to smack down, and a Jewel Seed to seal. Let's do this!|"

"|Right!|"

"|Yes!|"

The three children ran through the gate and stopped for a moment to take in the scene. In front of them, they saw the back of a slender woman in the traditional garb of the miko. Her robes were dusty and somewhat askew, and her shoulders were tense. Beyond her, the yurei screamed, shredding part of the circle of paper wards around it, and lunged toward the miko. She raised her hands, each holding a fan of fresh wards, but Shinta could see her flinching back as well, knowing she wasn't going to get them charged quickly enough.

His body burning from earlier exertions and still hot from prana use, Shinta nevertheless forced himself back into motion; even as a poor copy of the miko's wards, his Altered light had proved to be enough for him to touch the empowered vengeance spirit. And since Shinta could touch it...

The miko gasped in surprise as a small but stocky boy darted past her and plowed a too-bright knee strike into the charging yurei, checking its forward momentum. She held on to her own warding, though, and spared a glance behind her. She bit her lip before she could object. Really, saved by children? What was she coming to...?

The yurei recoiled, bucked, and swung, flinging Shinta over its 'head' and to one side. The boy tumbled as he hit the ground, but sprung upright quickly.

Yuuno saw this and acted. Recalling his experience binding the yurei earlier, two separate circular arrays appeared, one in each of his hands. "Dual... Chain... Bind!" Above and below the yurei, identical arrays appeared but much larger, about the diameter of the yurei's spectral form. A single loop of glowing chain sprang out from each array, much brighter than those Shinta had seen used previously.

Even as she finished charging and deploying the last of her prepared wards, the miko felt her lips quirk at the absurdity of it all. At one side she had a blonde boy in a tan cape throwing glowing chains around, and on the other, a cute little girl in a brilliant white dress holding a wand of red, gold and white.

"Now, Nanoha! Seal it now!" Yuuno shouted.

And then the wand spoke, and absurdity plunged into surrealism. "[SEALING MODE, STANDBY.]" There was a hissing clank, as the head of the white and gold staff extended and deployed three wing-like planes of pink light. The red gem at the head's center deployed a brilliant pink glow of its own. "[READY.]"

"Breath of creation, gather from the space between worlds! Artifact of antiquity, purge the echoes of mortal feeling and stand apart! Jewel Seed Seal!" Nanoha felt her body grow warm, then warmer, then uncomfortably hot, but pressed on.

"[SEALING JEWEL SEED.]"

The wave of pink light pushed at spectral mass of the yurei, violently scattering it outward to the far side of the perimeter created by the miko's wards. A tiny diamond-shaped crystal was revealed. Shinta saw the miko blink in surprise, then understanding.

"Strike it to finish the sealing! Quickly!" Yuuno shouted again.

"R-right!" Nanoha lunged, closing the distance as fast as her little legs could carry her. Shifting her grip on Raging Heart, which had also warmed noticeably, Nanoha called on the little bit of kenjutsu she had learned and swung. "Eeeeyaah!"

Silence. Then the tiny crystal finished sinking into the surface of the red gem that was the core of Raging Heart.

"[SEALING COMPLETE. RECIEPT NUMBER XXI, AQUIRED.]" Behind the gold ring at the staff's head, two cylinders of golden metal extended outward, revealing cylindrical steel venting. From these vents came a rush of steaming hot air. Nanoha felt the uncomfortable hotness of body drain away as this happened, and she took a deep breath of fresh air.

There was a moment's pause.

"Look out!" the miko cried.

"[MASTER!]"

"Eh?"

The yurei, though deprived of its source of excessive prana, still retained some of the overcharge. And Nanoha was inside the miko's warding... Even as it began to fade into in-corporality, the yurei gathered itself together and lunged for the girl.

"Nano—" "[FLASH MO—]"

A blur hit Nanoha just as the girl began to blur herself, and the yurei howled in a fading 'voice' as it missed its last attack.

Yuuno had just enough time to blink before the dual blur plowed into him and added him to the tumble. A cloud of dirt and dust was kicked up several meters outside the ring of wards.

The miko blinked, but then shrugged. "Well then, with nothing left in the way... Akuryou Taisan!"

Her ring of wards flared with prana, the yurei howled one last time... and was gone.

The wind picked up and blew the dust away, revealing the messy tangle of limbs that was Shinta and Nanoha. On the bottom of the pileup, Yuuno groaned.

* * *

><p>"Owie..."<p>

"You ok, N-Nanoha-san? I didn't h-hurt you too bad, did I?"

"No, Shinta-san... Mm, no, Shinta-kun."

"!" Shinta's already red face brightened with an even deeper blush.

"After experiencing something like this together, I think we should be able to call each other friends. Ok, Shinta-kun, Yuuno-kun?"

Shinta coughed into a fist. "Sha-sure, Nanoha-san." At her _look_, he tried again. "N-Nanoha-chan?" Shinta sighed in relief when she nodded brightly. Yuuno just looked puzzled.

Nanoha continued speaking. "I'm kind of embarrassed, actually, that I just stood there like that after sealing the Jewel Seed. You might think that watching my nii-san and nee-san practice kenjutsu would teach me at least that much, but no. At least I have you two looking out for me, Shinta-kun, Raging Heart."

Shinta nodded, but didn't reply immediately. Instead, he turned his attention to the red gem hanging from a necklace around Nanoha's neck.

The absence of speech stretched for a long moment. Then Raging Heart said "[YOU AND I NEED TO WORK ON OUR COMMUNICATION,]" in its odd, slightly musical but flatly intoned voice.

There was an equally long moment before Shinta gave a stiff nod in acknowledgement, all mock solemnity. Then he grinned. It took a few moments more before Nanoha caught on, but then she burst into giggles.

Yuuno, however, did not. Rather bruised himself, he appeared rather put out at the lack of attention.

* * *

><p>"Doesn't the old folklore say that a yurei is strongest at the place where it, as a person, died? Is that why this shrine was built here in the first place?"<p>

"Indeed it was."

After filling in Nanoha on the basics of the Moonlit World (First rule: don't talk about magic to/around normal people without taking steps to disguise it as a game or fiction. Second rule: _don't talk about magic_... and so forth), then leaving the girl in a historical discussion with the miko, Shinta pulled Yuuno aside.

"Hey, first off... I was kinda rude to you at a few points earlier today, and I'm sorry about that."

"Oh, well, it's ok... It was a bad situation, frustrating too... Anyway, apology accepted."

"Thanks. Now, moving on: that translation spell you're using is missing some important stuff about _Nippon_."

"Eh?"

"You don't even realize how presumptuous you're being when you address Nanoha-san, er, Nanoha-chan as 'Nanoha', do you?"

"Um, what? But, she said, friends, and calling her {Miss Nanoha} seems awfully formal, but then she said to call her {Little Nanoha}... I'm very confused right now."

Shinta felt a bead of sweat run down the side of his face. "I... see that. Well, it's like this..." and filled the other boy magus in on the use of honorific suffixes in the Japanese language.

"...I think I get it. Mostly. But what should I say to Nanoha...chan?"

"The truth: that you're using a translation spell, and you were missing a few rules about the local language. But you can do that after I go—Oh crap."

"Go?"

"Rin-kaa is going to ground me for _life_ for this..." Shinta winced, his mind seemingly elsewhere. "It's been hours, and—"

An American rock song began playing cheerily from a small case on Shinta's belt. If anything, Shinta looked even more afraid now than a moment ago. Meanwhile the noise had attracted the notice of the miko as well as Nanoha...

Shinta pulled his cell phone out, but hesitated before flipping it open. He turned to the others, and solemnly remarked, "You might want to cover your ears." Then he opened his phone, twisted his grip on it so the ear piece was as far from his ears as possible while keeping his mouth reasonably close to the microphone, and said in a quiet, moderately terrified tone, "Rin-kaa?"

"{SHINTA EMIYA! YOU ARE IN _SO_ MUCH TROUBLE! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN TOLD ABOUT RUNNING AROUND WITHOUT TELLING SOMEONE WHERE YOU WERE GOING?-!}"

It was like a bomb going off, the roaring voice that came through the phone. Shinta couldn't help the squeak in his voice as he tentatively replied, "Not too?"

"{And what did you do, today, after I did you the favor of bringing you with me from Shin Tokyo all the way up to Uminari!}"

"I... left you a text message before I left the campus library?"

"{What.}"

"It said that I was going to the park outside the university campus... On your cell phone, Rin-kaa. You did remember to check for new messages, right?"

"{...}" The sudden silence from across the phone was frightening.

"...You forgot to check, didn't you."

Much quieter than the first, as if from the background, another woman's voice could be heard saying, "{He's got you there, Rin.}"

"{Chiho... You're not helping. And _you__, Shinta_. Where are you, right now? We already missed the train I planned on taking back, and I don't want any more delays.}"

Shinta told her.

"{You stay right there—}"

"Wouldn't it be better if I met you on the street at the foot of the stairs up to the shrine? So you don't have to walk up them?"

"{...Yes, it would. Thirty, no, twenty minutes, Shinta. You better be there when Chiho and I arrive, or there will be _consequences_.}"

"I will, Rin-kaa-san."

"{Hmph.}" Click.

Nanoha looked horrified. "S-Shinta-kun... Your kaa-san s-sounds really, r-really mad..."

Shinta shivered for a moment, but then seemed to shrug it off. "Yea, she is. But it will pass, so it's okay."

The miko, however, looked most displeased. "That is no way to talk to a child! How could she—"

Shinta interrupted. "It's not me Rin-kaa is mad at. She's mad because I didn't think before taking the risk I did. We're a family of magi, after all." That last revelation caused the miko to recoil slightly.

"You... all three of you children are magi?"

"No, just me. I've never even heard of Yuuno-san's style of magecraft, and I read a _lot_. Nanoha-chan, though, is a newly discovered talent." Shinta shook his head. "I don't know what you've heard about magi, miko-san, but my family isn't like most of them. My parents are _extremely_ protective of me and my siblings, especially from unknowns. And that brings us to you two," he turned to Yuuno and Nanoha. "Yuuno Scrya, I want you to promise me this: look after Nanoha-chan, for the next week at the very least. Stuff you've said today, even if you aren't an Earth native," This elicited a gasp of surprise from the miko, "You've obviously got some kind of record on our world, and know about keeping knowledge of magic away from the general populous."

Shinta paused to gather breath. "Nanoha-chan... It's better this way. Right now, Rin-kaa is on a tear – she's likely to throw you and Yuuno into stasis along with the Jewel Seed just to keep you out of the way... But then, tomorrow once she's calmed down, she'll feel _horrible_ about doing that to a pair of kids. Horrible, guilty, upset, furious at herself for losing her temper..." He smiled softly. "I don't want you two going through that, and nobody in the family would be happy if Rin-kaa got stuck in _that place_ again, you know? This wouldn't have been a problem if I'd called and _told_ her, before running off to find out what was spewing all that prana... So this part of the big mess is actually my fault."

"Shinta...san."

"Shinta-kun."

"Here's my cell number, Nanoha-chan. Yuuno-san, I doubt Raging Heart's mind-speech trick will reach me through the wards at home. And Nanoha-chan..." Shinta blushed again, but took a deep breath and took Nanoha's hand in his own. "Don't leave Yuuno-san alone either. Even if you have to wack him on the head with Raging Heart—"

"Hey!"

"—Don't let him go off about being responsible for the Jewel Seeds and having to take them on alone. You agree with me, right? Just because it started with him, doesn't mean he's alone. I'll help him, and my family too."

Nanoha's mouth had dropped open when Shinta took her hand, her face slightly flushed. Then her mind caught up, and she clasped Shinta's hand in return and bounced once on her feet. "Yes, me too! If I can help, that I'm going to, because I want to!"

Shinta's blush deepened a bit, but his smile widened. "Great."

* * *

><p>"...Thank you, Matsu," Rin replied through gritted teeth. "...Now please let go before I have to do something <em>drastic<em>."

Matsu giggled and patted Rin's hip one final time, then unwrapped herself from the magi's side. Before leaving, however, she glomped onto Shirou with an audible purr, groped his butt and giggled again as he stiffened, before releasing him and flouncing over to the room's AV control console.

Both magi twitched as they watched the hacker go, before turning to each other, and then finally to Shinta.

"So..." Shirou began.

Rin continued. "The detection grid picked up an unusual spike of prana in Uminari City. While detection isn't fine enough outside Shin Tokyo to pinpoint where exactly it happened..."

Matsu spoke up. "But Matsu-tan noticed the goings on and brought a hi-res satellite camera to bear on the general area. And she found _this_—!"

Up on the projector came an overhead image of a classic Shinto shrine. Zooming in on the shrine courtyard showed a distortion of some sort, while a woman in in traditional miko garb stood opposed to it. Behind her, just inside the gate were two people, small in stature and oddly dressed. Between the two groups, leaning deeply into a running stance toward the distortion, was a third small person, hands and feet slightly aglow.

Shinta shrunk down in the chair he was perched upon, looking very, very small.

Rin smiled that special smile that promises pain and suffering if one does not answer honestly and completely - the Tohsaka Scary Smile. "Something you want to tell me, Shinta-kun?"

"Erk."

* * *

><p>This will not make much sense unless you have browsed the Mechanics of In Flight forum, specifically the Omake threads. For details on all the OC children of the Emiya clan check our TvTropes page at: tvtropes FanficTheEmiyaClan , or search the "In Flight OMAKES" community for the "Emiya Clan Reference Data Sheet" by kittybear right here on FF-net.

First drafted in the original TFF Omakes thread, page 37, post #1,814.

Redraft Part 1 at Emiya Clan 3 thread, page 47, post #2,318

Redraft Part 2 at Emiya Clan 3 thread, page 80, post #3,961

Redraft Part 2.1 at Emiya Clan 3 thread, page 80, post #3,995


	2. Chapter 2

_Devil's Wings 2_

By Trooper1023

This fan-fanfic is brought to you by the EMIYA CLAN scenario and its many contributors, from Gabriel Blessing's "Mechanics of In Flight" forum. This chapter was co-written with Servius Regis.

"[Look out!]" - dialogue in English (as opposed to Japanese)

"|Look out!|" - dialogue via telepathy

"{Hello.}" - dialogue via telephone, or heard at a very long distance

* * *

><p>"|Nanoha-chan, I'm picking up a dimensional disturbance and its growing fast! It's a Jewel Seed activation!|"<p>

The sudden intrusion of Yuuno's mental voice startled Nanoha. Around her, the soccer team her father coached was kicking back after their latest win, chatting with her parents and each other. She had decided to take a day off from the Jewel Seed hunt, still feeling frustrated from last week's miss on the continent... and the realization of her selfishness left Nanoha feeling a bit guilty. "|What? Where?|"

"|I'm looking at the maps you gave me and trying to scry it out... 'Shin Tokyo'?|"

"|Ah! That's where Shinta-kun lives! We have to get there fast... 'Translocation' again?|"

"|Yes, so meet me in the usual place, ok?|"

"|Yes!|" "Kaa-san, I'm going out for a while... ok?"

"Nanoha-chan? Hm, ok... You look a little down. Everything ok?"

"Yes, Kaa-san. I'm fine," Nanoha replied. _'I hope.'_

* * *

><p>Trapped in the middle of a meeting of moderate importance with Takami in his MBI office as Minato Sahashi, Shirou Emiya went utterly still as he felt a whole slew of city-wide wards trip and begin sending their warnings.<p>

"Takami, I'm sorry but we're—"

Both his cell phone and his mother's went off simultaneously, interrupting him. They both blinked, shrugged, and reached for their phones.

Shirou flipped his open and Rin's tense voice immediately filled his ear. "{Shirou, we've got wards going off in downtown, and just now there's been a perimeter breach! Get your butt down here,}" she hissed urgently.

"On my way," he replied curtly, then snapped the phone shut. Turning to Takami, he blinked at the sight of her pale face, then his eyes widened as she suddenly seized his arm and dragged him to the window of the office. Once there, her reason became obvious. "What in the world...?"

There was an enormous tree growing out of the middle of downtown Shin Tokyo; it was pushing fifty stories tall and still growing, even as they watched.

"So... Which emergency code should we be using to classify the civilian evacuation?"

"Well, it _is_ a tree..."

There was a moment's pause, then Shirou and Takami turned to each other and said in unison, "Unknown Botanical Lifeform."

Takami thought for a moment, then added, "With its current, _visible_ rate of growth... class four?"

"Agreed."

* * *

><p>Motoko Kusanagi had finished apprehending the culprits behind a recent cyber-crime spree, and truth be told, was rather disappointed. Sure, they had been a pain to track down, but a few overweight, pimpled teenagers who thought they could prove something by committing fraud and theft over the internet were hardly the most difficult of prey. She might have a bit of a hole in the skin of her left arm, her jacket sleeves now rolled down to cover the exposed cabling and alloyed bones, but the overloaded taser the kid had used did a good deal more damage to his hand. And the less said about their attempt at hacking her neural net after discovering that she had cybernetics, the better. Motoko had Chisame Emiya coding her firewalls and antivirus barriers for a reason.<p>

Matsu and Karin weren't allowed in due to prior... incidents.

So now Motoko was cruising down the road in her heavily-customized patrol car that she had wrangled out of her bosses a couple months ago. It was a really sweet ride: cobalt blue with a low, almost arrow-like frame, and every luxury and utility on the market that could reasonably fit. The streets were nice and clear, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. All in all, it was a great day for a quiet drive...

Motoko felt her heart sink in realization. Obviously, something awful was about to happen.

Her eyes were combing across the city skyline when they happened upon _it_. Motoko immediately accelerated and activated the police siren to clear the street ahead of her. She was nearing ground zero after only ten minutes. Finding a convenient spot, she pulled over to the curb, whipped out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Kuze! We have a... UBL-4 in downtown," she assessed, looking up at the enormous tree-like thing growing out of the street. "We need a press blackout and a cover story ASAP!"

There was a sigh at the other end. "{Motoko, I can see it from my office window. In fact I'm looking at it right now as I brew some more coffee.}"

"So what are you writing this off as?" she asked, the last bits of shock and inner panic fading under her steel professionalism.

"{We're currently circulating a story that it is MBI's newest attempt at producing massive amounts of photosynthetic energy for commercial use.}"

"Oh come on now! There isn't a plant on the face of the Earth that is remotely similar to that thing! And I'm pretty sure that whole idea violates quite a few laws of biology."

"{We're also saying that it was produced using a combination of cloned prehistoric DNA and the new botanical growth apparatus recently patented by MBI.}"

"And let me guess... people are buying it."

"{This _is_ Shin Tokyo; we're right up there with Nerima for average daily weirdness quotient. Also, there's actually some praise coming in by environmentalists for helping stop global warming.}"

"I wonder when those idiots going to figure out that the planet and us aren't the best of friends, nor have any intention of ever being so."

"{I would consider having Emiya-san or the Mage's Association _talk_ to them about that.}" The smirk was practically audible in Kuze's voice.

"Right then. Thanks and good work. I have to make another call now," she said into the mike before hanging up. Then she dialed another number.

* * *

><p>As the transfer spell finished its work to leave the two young mages hovering over a skyscraper, Nanoha looked out across Shin Tokyo with wide eyes. "Oh, kami, this is terrible—"<p>

With a gasp, Yuuno sagged suddenly, and Nanoha quickly moved to steady him. "Yuuno-kun?"

"That's... not what I was expecting... Nanoha-chan, this whole city has been heavily warded!"

"Warded?"

"Magical alarms and defenses. We got through because, for whatever reason, the defensive wards didn't stop us. But I could feel us tripping several of those alarms!"

"Ano..." Nanoha looked out at the gigantic tree, then back at Yuuno. "Isn't sealing the Jewel Seed more important?"

Yuuno shook his head as he straightened up, then pulled Nanoha toward a nearby rooftop with a clear view of the tree. "It's not that, Nanoha. Your world is classed as 'Gregorian', meaning it has a very small number of magically active people, no significant magical development, and no public knowledge of magic. But the TSAB conducts a regular census of Un-Administered Worlds – how could they miss this? Warding like this doesn't go up overnight, or even in a few years..."

Nanoha just looked puzzled at all the jargon.

Yuuno continued regardless. "We just intruded on the territory of a really powerful group of mages, and we don't know if they are hostile to outsiders, or if they can even handle the Jewel Seed..." After they landed, he ran his hands through is hair in nervous frustration and started to pace.

Nanoha put a finger to her lips in thought. "Could this group of mages be Shinta-kun's family?"

Yuuno opened his mouth to reply, but it wasn't his voice that spoke.

"Ara, ara. How is that a pair of children find themselves on the top of a major skyscraper like this?"

"Eh!-?" Said pair of children whirled to face the speaker

It was a woman with long purple hair wearing a purple hakama, a white haori and wooden sandals, and carrying a broad bag in one hand. "Also, I heard mention of a 'Shinta'... Whom might that be?"

"Ah! That's our friend." Nanoha cried. "About yay high, light red hair... last time I saw him, he was covered in grass stains..." The girl then bowed. "How do you do? My name is Nanoha Takamachi, and this," She elbowed Yuuno, who started, then clumsily aped her bow, "Is Yuuno Scrya."

The woman smiled at the display of manners, and returned it. "Miya Emiya. It is nice to meet you, Takamachi-chan, Scrya-kun. Shinta-kun is my stepson, though usually the family doesn't bother with that distinction."

Nanoha nodded, then continued. "Ano... It might sound a bit strange coming from us, but, well..."

Yuuno blinked, then shrugged to himself and stepped into the conversation. "That tree," he pointed over his shoulder at the giant and still growing shape, "is being fed by something called a 'Jewel Seed'. Seal that, and the tree shouldn't be a problem. And between Nanoha-chan and I, we can do that."

"Seal it?" Miya asked.

Yuuno nodded. "The problem is that this is someone else's territory. I don't want to go around making trouble for myself or Nanoha-chan or anyone else, but... We have to act quickly, before any more damage is caused to the city."

Miya pursed her lips, but looking closely, Yuuno thought he saw hints of a smile. "Now, Scrya-kun. You are going to be a bit more forthcoming about what exactly you are talking about. Territory? What kind of territory is this?"

Nanoha watched as Yuuno hesitated for a moment, before appearing to reach a conclusion. "This whole city is the territory of a mage or group of mages. I felt our entrance trigger several wards. That's how I know."

The expression on Miya's face did not change. "What is a mage?"

The blonde boy's face paled slightly, knowing he was caught. "You know."

"Do I?"

"I... Oh, dimensions and demons! I'm not playing this game anymore. Emiya-san, Nanoha and I are magic users, what you call _magi_. There, I said it. Can we get to dealing with that Jewel Seed now? Erk." Yuuno went very stiff as the air around the purple haired woman darkened for a moment.

Then the sense of danger vanished, and Miya spoke. "I suppose I can forgive the rudeness on account of the current emergency... And lucky for you, it just so happens that it _is_ the Emiya family that oversees this city. Let me inform the rest, please..." From the fold of her haori, Miya withdrew a cell phone.

Meanwhile, Yuuno gave a huge sigh of relief, while Nanoha looked on, confused but glad that it was over... whatever it was.

After several minutes of hushed conversation, the barely audible voice from the cell phone abruptly rose in volume, causing Miya to yank the phone away from her ear with a ferocious scowl, and startling Nanoha and Yuuno.

"{WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'CAUSE'!-? JEWEL SEED? **I—DON'T—CARE!** JUST DEAL WITH IT, OR GET IT **OUT** OF MY CITY!-!-!}"

One elegant eyebrow twitched, and then the feeling of danger returned tenfold. "Rin... shouting at family members in the middle of an emergency is _absolutely __**forbidden**_."

The two children were rightfully glad to be out of the line of fire.

"A-and I thought Shinta-san's mother was s-s-scary..."

"Y-yes..."

* * *

><p>Motoko's temper was starting to fray by the time phone finally stopped ringing.<p>

"{Emiya here—}" came the voice on the other end.

"Shirou. Tree. Explain," she demanded in quick succession.

Most people couldn't get away with talking like that to people above their pay grade. Then again, she wasn't 'most people'. This man headed a company whose 'experimental cybernetics' were the underpinnings of her 'life', and later had personally saved her livelihood. When politics had required that she quit Section 9, he had contacted her directly and offered her the chance to continue keeping the peace, in Shin Tokyo. And in doing her duty here (as absurd and maddening as it sometimes got), Motoko had a gained a window into a world most of humanity considered no more than fantasy.

She also knew well that sometimes need transcended propriety. What was the case this time, remained to be seen.

"{Slow down Motoko. We've got it under control... We think.}"

"And _what_ does that mean?"

"{It means that our only available experts on the subject are a pair of children who Shinta made friends with last week,}" Shirou replied in a perfect deadpan.

Motoko felt her teeth clench. "_Why_ do situations like this always end up in the hands of children?"

"{I don't know. I wonder about it, occasionally: what kind of ridiculous logic train allows the universe to let such a thing happen. But then I recall the last time I asked a question of that caliber. Do you remember the aftermath?}"

Motoko grunted. "Why are you asking me?"

"{Because _you_ are the one that had to borrow a transit bus and tour the city, dragging each of our grown-up, drunk-out-of-our-minds, sorry asses out of whatever watering hole we'd retreated to and then dumping us all back home,}" Shirou answered glibly.

A sound half-way between a snarl and a choked-off shriek rumbled out of Motoko's throat, somehow retaining its meaning: 'I am never doing that for you or yours again, _ever_.'

"{Mm. And that is why I believe some questions are better of left unanswered.}" There was a long pause, then Shirou continued on his original track. "{Regardless, we don't have a choice right now. Miya is with these kids right now on top of the Harumi-Benson corporate tower, and she feels they are telling the truth.}"

Motoko immediately kicked the car back into gear and started toward the named building.

"{...Also, Takeshi and his Ashikabi are trapped inside the 'tree'.}"

The cop cursed. "So K.I.W.F. is out of the question."

"{Obviously. I'm banking on these kids to save the city with less property damaged incurred than the alternatives.}"

"Shirou, adults typically incur as little property damage as possible because we know there really isn't a point to it and it's a waste of energy and resources. Children capable of the same will incur property damage left and right because they think it makes them look cooler."

"{Motoko, we're dealing with a complete unknown. Anything 'special' I or my family tries has as much of a chance to backfire horribly as it does to succeed. That, and my son's word that these two have done this before, are why I'm willing to let them handle it.}"

"Well, it's your call. But I'm still arresting them after the tree's dealt with."

A sigh could be heard across the phone. "{On what grounds?}"

"Come on, they're obviously related to this somehow, seeing how your own intelligence on the situation is _coming_ from these kids," Motoko said with a slight smirk as she pulled up to the curb. "Just make sure you come pick them up right as they actually start thinking they're going to spend the night in lockup." Shutting off the engine, Motoko stepped out onto the street, hefting her police kit and some useful nonstandard odds and ends.

"{Right. You want to give them the usual lecture on exactly whose city this is, and what happens to anyone who makes a mess of it. Very well, I suppose I can allow you that much. Since Miya will be moving out to secure our son and Haruhi-chan, you can take over watch on this Yuuno Scrya and Nanoha Takamachi... Just try not to frighten them _too_ badly when you bring them in. Oh, and grab Miya's bag while you're up there. She's leaving it behind.}"

"Sure. And don't worry," she assured him, switching over to the rune-carved stun slugs from Touko's foundry and then sliding her gun into her hip holster. "They won't notice a thing until they're sitting in interrogation."

With a smile, she entered the H-B lobby and headed for the elevators, using her police wetware access to override the lockdown.

* * *

><p>"{...And you can handle this thing? Without causing any more damage to my city?}"<p>

"Yes, Rin-san. The last Jewel Seed we dealt with manifested through a yurei, making it difficult to pin down, but this should be much simpler. We just need to get close enough to the center to find the Jewel Seed itself—"

Nanoha, still examining the giant tree in the distance, blinked and then asked, "Why?"

"Huh?"

"{Huh?}"

"Why can't we seal it from here?" She asked, then pointed. "Emiya-san said to look at the bubble in that patch of lighter wood..."

"[WIDE AREA SEARCH, SUCCESSFUL.]"

"...And along with two people, that's where the Jewel Seed is. Raging Heart, can we?"

"[YES.]"

Yuuno gaped. "Eh? At this range?-! But—"

"[MY COMPATABILITY WITH MY MASTER IS EXCELLENT. WE CAN DO THIS.]"

Miya nodded her head, her eyes focused and intense gaze locked on the same point. "Please do." _'That is my son and his Ashikabi trapped in there...'_

"[SHOOTING MODE – STANDBY.]" The staff's circular head began to change.

That brought the woman's head around. "Shooting?-!"

From a gold ring, it became a pair of prongs like a tuning fork with the big red gem still in the center. "[READY.]"

Nanoha nodded absently. "The tree should disappear, just like the yurei from before..." The girl suddenly blinked in realization. "Wait, will it? And if it does, that will leave those two in mid-air!"

Yuuno stepped forward. "Let me see..." An array sprang up in the hand he stretched out toward the tree, and he closed his eyes. "_Conceptual Analysis_. Good, my scans aren't being blocked. Hm..." A minute later, the boy mage opened them again. "I think it's something in the emotionality of the two people trapped that is creating the 'tree' from the Jewel Seed's provided prana. Once we cut off the flow, the tree will disappear."

Miya's eyes narrowed, first at the girl, then the boy. Taking the phone back, she hissed to Rin, "I don't like this."

"{Neither do I, but this is a magical artifact we have no knowledge of and no experience with. Anything I or Shirou or anyone else tries is going to be complete guesswork, and with Takeshi-kun and Haruhi-chan...}"

"You're sure about it being those two?"

"{His cell phone is still active and Matsu says it's located right at the tree's center of mass. And Shinta is still telling me to let them handle it. Loudly and repeatedly.}" Indeed, the voice of Musubi's boy was faintly audible behind Rin's own.

Miya sighed deeply. "Are you are someplace you can watch? By my own judgment, Takamachi-chan and Scrya-kun are being genuine and honest with us. However, I would much rather one of the family's magi handle this duty in the future."

"{You and me both. And yes, I'm definitely somewhere I can watch. Shirou too. Who tells me that Office Kusanagi is on her way up to the roof to take custody of the kids after you head out.}"

"Tell her to grab my bag as well, since I will be leaving it here when I move into position to catch my son and Haruhi-chan." She hung up.

"Uh, Emiya-san..."

Miya turned to the pair. "Do it. I'll catch the two before they hit the ground."

"Ah..." Yuuno watched in surprise as the purple haired woman tucked the phone away, set her bag down, and then leaped over the edge of the rooftop in a blur. The boy's eyes could barely follow her path as she vaulted dozens of meters in single bounds, using window sills and other tiny footholds. "Well, that's another point to the Belkan-Knights-gone-native theory..."

"Here we go!"

"[DIVINE BUSTER.]"

"Shoot!"

* * *

><p>"Shirou, are you seeing this?" Rin asked, watching as a <em>bright<em> pink array appeared under the little girl in white, while bands in a similar style appeared around the white and gold staff.

"Yes, I am," the magus replied, eyes narrowed even as he focused on his sense of the magic at play before him.

A ball of raw prana gathered just beyond the twin prongs, then twisted invisibly with incredible precision in a style unfamiliar to either magi. Shirou continued speaking, "The 'scent'... separation and containment? It's like she's preparing a bounded field... but at that long range?"

The girl leveled the staff toward the very center of the tree. Reinforced ears just barely picked up the words.

"{ [DIVINE BUSTER.] }"

"{Shoot!}"

The ball burst upon this command, becoming a broad beam of pink light that lanced across the distance in a second. It struck very near the point on the 'tree' where the signal from Takeshi's cell phone has been located. Immediately, the contact point began to expand outward, yet the beam did not fade.

"{Breath of creation, gather from the space between worlds!}"

The expanding point became a ring of prana, then two concentric rings, then more complex shapes...

Shirou drew a breath of startled comprehension. "It's taking the same shape as the array that appeared underneath her as she was first shaping the spell."

Rin's eyes narrowed at the IR scan of the girl, seeing how much her body temperature was rising and how fast. "She's running a dangerously large amount of prana through her circuits."

"{Artifact of antiquity, purge the echoes of mortal feeling and stand apart! Jewel Seed Seal!}"

Shirou nodded wordlessly, eyeing the strange array floating in the air, with its two rings of unknown runes spinning in opposite directions, the pair of squares binding the two rings also rotating. The inner ring was centered on the 'bubble' holding Takeshi, Haruhi, and presumably, this 'Jewel Seed'.

"{ [SEALING JEWEL SEED.] }"

The giant 'tree' began to glow faintly, while Takeshi and Haruhi became visible as silhouettes, and a tiny point between them began to shine brightly.

The glow from the 'tree' rapidly began to brighten, until it lost the entirety of its appearance as a tree and remained, for a moment, as pure light. Then the light shattered, and the shining point that was the 'Jewel Seed' moved with startling speed up the beam still emitted from the girl's staff, and vanishing into the red gem at its head. The beam vanished shortly thereafter.

Freed, Takeshi and Haruhi began to fall, only for a white and purple blur to snatch them both from the air.

"{ [SEALING COMPLETE. RECIEPT NUMBER II, AQUIRED.] }" Behind the twin prongs at the staff's head, the two cylindrical vents extended and released a rush of steaming hot air. At the same time, the girl tottered momentarily on her feet, before the blonde boy steadied her.

Shirou couldn't help but whistle, impressed in spite of himself. Looking around the rest of the skyline, all he could see were the building he expected, and down at street level was the giant hole in the street where the 'tree' had put down its roots. "I wish more of our problems could solve themselves this easily."

Rin scowled and slapped his arm. "Are you calling me incompetent?"

Shirou raised an eyebrow at his wife and long-time friend. "Why yes, Rin. I'm calling you incompetent for not controlling the uncontrollable. For not being able to predict the unpredictable. And for your talent in creating un-plans for plannable events."

Rin shook her head. "See Shirou, this is why your kids have such attitude problems: they get the idea that sarcasm is acceptable in any and all situations from yo—wait a moment, what did you say about my planning ability?-!"

Smirk. "Nothing, dear."

Rin _glared_.

Turning back to the rooftop, Shirou's reinforced eyes picked out Motoko about to make her move.

Huffing, Rin turned back to her own considerations of the blonde boy. "'Conceptual Analysis', huh..."

* * *

><p>Camped out in the public waiting area of the downtown precinct, Shinta shuffled the deck he'd brought. Sure, this was going to take a while, but the only damage had been done by the tree's growth, not Nanoha's spell. In comparison to what some of his siblings and cousins got up to, that was downright amazing.<p>

_'I just hope that Motoko-san isn't going to do anything too drastic to Nanoha-chan and Yuuno-san. This is just her act to establish Respect for The Law here in Shin Tokyo...'_

His eyebrow twitched. The cyborg officer was _far_ too fond of prevention over cure, when it came to The Law. That usually meant scaring the wits out of everyone she could, at every chance she got.

* * *

><p>Yuuno Scrya awoke in a small, dimly lit room. He was sitting at a metal table across from the female officer from the rooftop, still wearing her sunglasses and reading a newspaper. Behind her was a mirror, which he was certain, even in his groggy state, separated them from a room full of more police personnel.<p>

The woman took another sip of her coffee as she flipped the page. He noticed that she was leaning back in her chair and had propped up her feet on the table diagonally. Doing his best to look like a confused nine year old, he sat up straight in his chair and tried to stretch his arms, only to find that they were manacled together with some kind of reinforced material. After a few shakes he just clasped his hands together and set them on the table in front of him.

"Um... Officer-san? Is something the matter?" he asked, trying to give off the aura of someone who was definitely not freaked out by being knocked out and tossed in an interrogation room, and was no more than innocently confused.

The woman folded down the top of the paper with her index fingers and turned her head towards him, a bemused expression on her face even though he could not see past the mirrored lenses. After a few moments of staring, she kicked her feet off the table, put the paper to the side and shifted her body to face him.

"Alright then" she said, removing her sunglasses, "I'll begin. You do not have the right to remain silent. You do not have the right to an attorney. You do not have the right nor ability to escape from here, so don't even try. Do you have any question about these rights that you do not have?"

Yuuno felt his chest tighten and his heart rate sped up. He chose his words as carefully as he could – Gegorian worlds tended to an older age of civil maturity, so maybe a play to his young age? "You have got to be kidding me. I'm _nine_. And you still haven't told me what I'm being held for."

"I'll take that as a no," Motoko replied, intrigued in spite of herself. Usually a magus-type would attempt to escape immediately upon waking up, thinking that this was just some run-of-the-mill precinct and she was just a regular town cop. "You're being held because I found you and your accomplice on a corporate rooftop, which by the way, isn't open to public access, shortly after a rather brilliant lightshow accompanied the disappearance of a giant tree that had grown out of the middle of downtown nearly as quickly. Rather suspicious, don't you think?"

Yuuno felt a bead of sweat slide down the side of his face. "Who _are_ you, anyway?"

Motoko _grinned_.

* * *

><p>Nanoha was, in a word, terrified.<p>

A week ago, she had been just a normal girl going to school with her normal friends, doing normal girl things. Out of nowhere, she had been drafted to help an actual _alien_ and a boy _wizard_ (though the alien looked _exactly_ like a normal boy, and the wizard preferred _punching_ things to shooting fireballs) collect a bunch of dangerous magic gemstones. And then she found out that she had an amazing potential for magic herself. The first day had been scary, but also exciting. The second day was filled with conversation, some telepathic and some by phone, about all kinds of magical things. As the week had progressed, the excitement had faded somewhat, but the sense of purpose had not.

Nanoha was glad for that. It was something that had bothered her immensely during her conversations with Arisa and Suzuka about their futures: her seeming lack of interest or talent in any particular direction. She was good at arithmetic but not spectacular, not having Arisa's drive (even though Arisa herself kept saying that if only Nanoha applied herself, she would be at the top of the math class with her). She was moderately athletic, but prone to bouts of clumsiness. History just _was_, and language... Especially English... Gah.

But magic? That she was _good_ at. Yuuno had been amazed at how quickly she had learned to cast (without device aid) the flying spell, and then basic shooter and protection spells (one of each). And just today, she and Raging Heart had created and cast an actual bombardment spell! That was supposed to be really high-level magic! And she'd done it in a week! Granted, Raging Heart had been helping the development every step of the way, but...

But...

But... Nanoha was also a nine year old who had just been arrested at gunpoint by a Shin Tokyo police officer.

An officer who's shooting arm was so fast Nanoha hadn't even seen her move. Not the way her siblings moved either, which was tricking the eye to lose focus, then using the eye's natural blind spot. That much about her brother's sword style, she knew.

No, Nanoha had been looking right at the officer and hadn't seen her draw the stun gun until after Yuuno had been hit. Somehow, she had missed the action of drawing, and though Yuuno saw it, he'd only the time to abandon the Translocation spell and move to shield her with his own body! And now that she knew about magic... Her own imagination had her terrified.

Yuuno had taken both slugs, saving her from being hit, but seeing him convulse on the floor wasn't pleasant. Now she was stuck, alone, in what _had_ to be an interrogation room, with an ominously blinking camera swiveling above her.

"Umm, hello?" she muttered, shifting nervously in her chair.

The camera just kept sweeping the room.

"May I have some water?" she asked as she continued to wring her hands.

The metal box didn't halt its arc.

"Please? I'm really thirsty," she whined at the machine.

The device continued to blink at a regular interval.

Nanoha gathered her courage and stood up out of her chair, intent on asserting some kind of protest against being kept unwatered. "Fine then! I'll just—" she shouted as she did an abrupt about face… and saw a water dispenser emplaced on the back wall.

"..."

There was nothing more she could say, not without embarrassing herself even more. Instead, Nanoha walked over to the dispenser, drew a Styrofoam cup of water, and brought it back to her chair. After staring at the slowly rippling liquid, she turned towards the camera and tried to say in a semi-dignified voice, "Thank you."

The camera made another pass.

She emptied the cup slowly. A few minutes later, she went to get another.

* * *

><p>"Got any sevens?"<p>

"Go fish."

"Got any kings?"

"...Here"

"That's my last," said Shinta, putting down the four kings to join the rest of his cards on the table.

Motoko just looked resigned. "I bet you're counting cards here."

"You can't count cards in Go Fish."

"Like I'd believe a kid who memorized the United States tax code."

"I did not!"

"Well, that was a pretty hefty book you had that day..."

There was a beat.

"It was Homer's _Iliad_."

"Heh. My point stands."

Shinta stuck his tongue out. "Biiiiiiiiiii!"

"...You sure you got nothing else on that tree. Or your two friends?"

"And make it easy for you? Work for it, ya toaster. Or I start screaming 'evil clone!'."

"What."

"You enjoy scaring the piss out of suspects too much to take the easy way out."

"Language, brat. And don't call me a toaster, do I look cycloptic to you?"

"You could always get a mirrored eye patch...!" Shinta ducked the playful swipe Motoko took at his head, grinning.

* * *

><p>Yuuno was worried. He had nothing in particular against his opponents here aside from the fact that one officer had managed to shoot him out of a Translocation spell. He was quick and efficient with movement magic, though apparently not quick enough, and losing like that stung his pride.<p>

_'I hope this works... All of Grandpa's escape stories had him breaking out of magically entrapped ancient tombs or military stockades at various levels of technology. None of them were this advanced, though... And that officer – her reflexes aren't natural.'_

However, he wasn't going to give in to an interrogation. There were few things more important than protecting the secret of magic on a Gregorian world; everyone with a TSAB license for dimensional self-transit knew it like he did. The fact that he _also_ knew so much about the Jewel Seeds, and what they could do even in the hands of people without magic... He had to get out of here.

_'Well, here goes.' _

Yuuno positioned himself against one wall of the holding room he had been moved into, at the edge of the sole camera's arc but still visible. When the camera was at its farthest in its arc to the other side of the room, he dropped to his knees and let his animal totem subsume his form.

Then it was a ferret that sat huddled against the wall. Skirting around the edge of the room toward the door, he paused next to the doorframe.

When the door opened with a creak of its hinges, the ferret bolted towards it, fully intent on speeding past the person who had been questioning him previously. The small size of his alternate form, its speed, and the fact that said person was in mid-stride _should_ have allowed Yuuno to escape into the hall.

Pity that this person wasn't normal, and she proved it in Yuuno's mind once again.

There was no sense of magical enhancement in the limb, yet the officer's foot stepped down squarely on his tail, which, while not stopping him completely, slowed him down and hurt horribly. Yuuno recovered his focus in the middle of the hallway, just in time to register the large shadow bearing down on him at a relatively high speed.

A few seconds later, there was a ferret plastered on the front of the doughnut cart.

"Um, ma'am?" said the intern pushing the cart. "Should we call an exterminator?"

Motoko shook her head. "No. Give it here," she ordered between bites of her doughnut. _'Now, to find a cage of the right size...'_

* * *

><p>There were about twenty Styrofoam cups in the trash now, with another in the hands of the shaking girl in the chair. She wasn't sure if the water was helping any, but it was at least something to do in the empty room. Her mind was still spinning wheels of horror and incarceration and disappointed parents, and that was adding to the mesmerizing tension in the room.<p>

Tension which exploded when the woman who had tried to shoot her earlier walked in carrying a box of doughnuts.

"AAAAAHH!" screamed Nanoha, shrinking into her chair as far as she could go. What water remained in the cup hit the tiled floor, while the cup itself flew across the room.

Ignoring the water (it would drain out of the room through the grate in the floor) and the cup ('interrogation, then cleanup' was standard procedure), the officer looked down to the box. "Don't like doughnuts?" she asked. Stranger things had happened in these rooms.

"AAAAaaaah...?" Nanoha's scream trailed off at the nonplussed response. Her eyes, however, darted across the officer's form, trying to find the gun.

Motoko smirked. "Not gonna find it like that, girly. Better have tried and failed. Now then, to business." She dropped herself into the chair opposite the girl, making sure to use her weight to force a tortured squeal from the chair in the process. "Here's the scope: you are a suspect in a murder investigation," she informed the already panicked girl in a too-even tone. It was only a half lie, of sorts.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeh?-! But—but—but—I didn't kill anyone!" The girl was waving her arms up and down, almost flapping, in her panic.

The smirk broadened. "Explain that to the enviro's screaming about the 'extinction of the massive tree in Shin Tokyo'," Motoko quipped back. Measuring the expression on Nanoha's face, she realized that maybe she had taken the deception a bit too far and should probably reel it back in. "Tell you what kid. We're planning to call this off as a big accident anyways and shift all of the blame to the politicians that usually get blamed but don't ever get punished for anything." Nanoha visibly calmed down quite a bit. "Now I'm just going to call your parents—"

"EEP! NONONONO! PLEASE DON'T CALL MY PARENTS!" screamed Nanoha again, lunging for the phone that Motoko brought out.

One eyebrow rose. "Oh? So what should I do instead, with a little girl whose name isn't listed anywhere on the registers of the families living in _my_ city?"

"Er..."

* * *

><p>"I fold."<p>

"See! Now it's you who's cheating!"

"Am not."

"You don't need a poker face because you can artificially paralyze your facial muscles."

"Still not cheating."

"Grrrr..."

"How about we play something else, without cards," Motoko suggested. They did this every time Shinta came by the station, whether he had been arrested for something or not. Tradition was tradition, after all.

"Like what?" asked the boy, still sullen over his inability to beat her at poker.

"I'm pretty good at Starcraft II," she ventured, holding back a troll's grin.

"How is that fair!-? You have a computer for a brain, and Tou-san won't let me at that book on nerve Reinforcement!"

"Still? I thought you were pretty good at that Reinforcement stuff... but I see your point."

"...You've even upgraded. Totally not fair," Shinta said with a sniff and crossed his arms.

Motoko boggled. "...How the hell'd you know _that_?"

"Structure Grasp. So useful."

"Damnit, you brat. If you were older, I'd call you a pervert for looking."

"Biiiiiiii—!"

Motoko's hand shot out and seized the boy's tongue between thumb and forefinger.

"Aah!"

"Now that was just stupid, considering we were just discussing my refle—oh, gross!" She quickly yanked her hand back, a disgusted look on her face, then started looking for a rag or tissue to wipe it off with.

"Hahaha! If you can't beat 'em in stats, set traps!"

The muscles around Motoko's left eye twitched. "Alright, enough screwing around or I'm leaving."

"Chess?" Shinta suggested back, still grinning.

"Umm," she deadpanned, discretely downloading the latest in chess 'AI' from the net. The download complete signal flashed on her HUD. "Sure," she replied as she finished cleaning up her hand.

* * *

><p><em>'This is getting progressively worse and worse,'<em> thought Yuuno from the inside of a pet cage just the right size for his ferret form.

Motoko fixed the ferret with an evil eye. "You should know that you misjudged the arc of the camera in the holding room—the monitor showed me clearly what happened."

The ferret froze.

"These escape attempts are pathetic," she continued. "But since you can't talk in that form, I'm willing to let you out, provided you change back and swear to me that you aren't going to try escaping again."

Yuuno thought fast. Several seconds ticked by before he came to a decision.

Motoko blinked as a circle of light appeared under the ferret, and it began to fade from sight. She recognized it from the rooftop… _'Is he seriously going to—?'_

Suddenly the walls of the room lit up, runic arrays glowing brightly to Yuuno's eyes, before his Translocation spell hit a barrier of a similar style to the ones around the city. This one, however, did not let him pass. Instead, it completely _shredded_ the careful equations of his spell, painfully slamming him back into the physical world. The psychic backlash from losing his spell so violently nearly drove Yuuno into unconsciousness. "Guh—!"

The officer watching him perked up. "That's not a sound a ferret can make..." Motoko let loose a quiet laugh. "Alright kid, enough with the games."

_'Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good... What to do? What to do?'_

"|Officer, listen to me,|" came the boy's voice, only it was entering the speech centers of her mind directly, completely bypassing her ears and the fiber optic nerves connecting them to her brain.

"Interesting trick, kid."

"|I wouldn't make a big deal of it, or respond too much. How long would you stay on the force after your superiors see you having a conversation with a ferret.|"

Motoko had to shunt control of her breathing away from her mind and over to the backup processor, the urge to laugh was so strong. But tricks like this are what made her effective as a hunter in the Moonlit World. Granted, she wasn't very far up the chain, but when something was expecting a normal human, not a magi, and got her...

"|I appreciate that you believe that you are doing your job of protecting the peace. However, I must insist that you let me go. There are things far larger at stake here than you realize.|"

His interrogator leaned in and let her fingers steeple. "Enlighten me."

"|You don't have any evidence linking myself and the girl to the giant tree that appeared and then disappeared. All you have done is hold me, and leverage intimidation and phantom consequences in my direction. Obviously, there is some sort of plot going on to hold myself and my friend long enough so that something truly dangerous could be acquired by another party. Think about it. Was it natural, the way that the whole room lit up with strange symbols, and then suddenly stopped? What about those stun darts you were issued this morning—notice anything unusual about them? And my own ability, which you claim you witnessed remotely. There are things that physical technology can't explain that at work here. Please, I'm trying to help. But if the wrong people got a hold of the knowledge I'm carrying...|"

Motoko looked away as she pretended to consider for a minute, then turned back to the nine year old boy turned ferret that had just attempted to lecture her on both magic and the greater good. She actually enjoyed it when this happened. Those in on the 'secret' always assumed that they were so special and successful in keeping said 'secret.' It never failed to give her something to laugh at, after work.

"Kid."

"|Eh?|"

"Did it ever occur to you that I might know that you're a magus?"

The ferret in the cage actually fell over on its side with a soft thump. This time, Motoko released her breath control and let out a loud laugh.

Yuuno recovered himself and sat upright. "|That's not possible. This world is Gregorian: almost all industry and little to no magic. Regular city police shouldn't have a clue!|"

Motoko cocked the other eyebrow and seized another doughnut. Bless her artificially regulated metabolism. "Was it a military organization that gave you that information?"

"|...I'm not telling.|"

"Kid, military intelligence is an oxymoron," she sighed as she leaned across the table, opened the cage, and drew the ferret out by the scruff of its neck. Lifting it up to the level of her face, Motoko knit her eyebrows together and let loose one of her better glares. The ferret 'eep'ed in response. "Now, I'm going to set you down in this second chair. You're going to go human form, take a donut, then shut up and listen while you eat."

Yuuno's beady ferret eyes were fixed on the hole in Motoko's forearm, uncovered as the sleeve of her jacket shifted while she moved. Seeing wires and metal beneath the skin surprised him so much he forgot to respond telepathically. "W-w-w-wha—what in dimensions?-!"

"Well?"

Shocked out his recalcitrant mindset, Yuuno obeyed with haste.

Once the boy returned to human form, was seated, and had a donut in hand, Motoko crossed her arms and sat back in her own chair. The open-wound gambit wasn't effective very often, but the reaction when it _was_, well... "Now, here is how this city works..."

* * *

><p>Nanoha had calmed down after Motoko assured her that she was not, in fact, going to call her parents. Now she had actually given her a nice little lecture on ground rules in Shin Tokyo, without interruption, and generally accomplished her task for the evening. It, much to her pleasure, took less time than the other one, since she had to get him to stop trying to escape and then shut up first.<p>

Now they were sitting in the after-lecture silence, enjoying the doughnuts she got off the cart. Motoko noticed, however, that Nanoha seemed to still be uncomfortable.

"Takamachi-chan?" she said soothingly, not needing to be a cop or surrogate parent anymore. "Is something wrong?"

Nanoha didn't answer, only shifting uncomfortably in her chair once again.

"Are you still afraid that you'll get punished?" she asked, "Don't worry about that, you didn't do anything particularly wrong. I just needed to make sure that _having_ magic doesn't go to your head."

The girl nodded a couple of times but continued looking agitated.

"Your friend is fine too. He just got the same lecture you did."

"Mhm," mumbled Nanoha, looking at the floor as her jaw tightened.

"And no civilians were got hurt, which is the important thing."

Nanoha's breathing accelerated, but she looked momentarily relieved at the information, before returning to being uncomfortable.

Motoko had no idea what was going on so she just continued searching her brain for a problem... Then her eyes happened across the trash can.

Inwardly she groaned. _'Of course.'_ She was busy treating her like a magus and forgot to treat her like a nine year old child. Motoko stood up and walked over. Pointing down towards her lap, she asked, "You going to make it?"

Nanoha looked up apologetically and shook her head.

The exasperated policewoman resisted the urge to palm her face. Instead, she grabbed the girl up in her arms and threw the door open. She dashed down the hall, gritting her teeth in hopes that they would make it, directly towards the woman's restroom.

* * *

><p>"Well, Kusanagi-san," said Shirou, walking into the room where said woman was studying the security feed. "I trust that there has been sufficient time to lay down the law?"<p>

Motoko grimaced. "Very funny Emiya-_san_, but yes, everything has been taken care of." She shook her head. "And by the way, I'm pretty sure that your children naturally seek out those that are just as crazy as they are."

The red haired man gave a slight chuckle. "Tell me something I don't know. Anything I need to sign?" A clipboard was thrown straight at his head, which he caught with the ease of long practice.

"So do me a favor. Keep any of your children from reacting for a couple years. I've got my hands full as it is. At least give me some time for the older ones to get to blowing shit up in someone else's city," Motoko grumbled.

Shirou took the clipboard and looked through it. "Let's see... the normal stuff... anything interesting happen?" he asked, flipping the pages.

"The blonde boy is a shape-shifter, turns into a ferret about this long. He also attempted and failed to escape three times. I'm not sure if he fully believes that, no, I am _not_ robotic pawn in some insane megalomaniac's scheme and no, this little incident is _not_ the worst thing that has ever happened to this city." She sighed. "Kids these days."

"Agree with you on the latter, but on the former—"

"I meant insane, _evil_ megalomaniac. For what it's worth, your father hasn't reached the 'evil' point yet."

"'Yet' being the operative word..."

"Shinta is in the lounge, looking after his friends. He and I played a few games like usual, since I gave him the lecture years ago. Bet he's still confused as to how I beat his chess game in six moves." She smirked. "Was worth it, even though I know it's not going to work on him next time. As for the girl, once we got it straightened out that this was just a courtesy call of sorts and not her execution, we were able to get along fine. Well, except for the fact that she didn't feel comfortable telling her police captor that she had to go to the bathroom. I had to rush her down there myself once I saw the trash overflowing with Styrofoam cups." Motoko turned to watch Rin on the monitors, looming over the children and probably giving them a lecture on safety of her own. _'That is so not fair. Those two are even more scared of her than they ever were of me!'_

Shirou looked amused until he reached the end of the stack. "Why is there a cleaning bill here?"

The woman slumped back in her chair.

"We... didn't make it."

* * *

><p>Shinta's home was definitely worthy of the title 'estate'. It was <em>huge<em>. So was the entry hall. And even as big as it was, it was still crowded from the many women, teenagers, and children all bunched up to meet Shinta's new friends. Oh yes, and one man; made obvious as the boy's father by the similarity of their faces.

Yuuno was trying hard to repress his experience with the local police, especially that one officer. _'What was she, some kind of flesh-over-metal puppet familiar? A remotely-controlled robot? An actual sapient construct? No, don't go there. Just don't!'_ He hadn't had much success, however, so the distraction of his new friend's home and family was quite welcome.

Moreover, the Scrya boy reveled in a feeling so very close to that of being 'home'. The estate had many wings, each a solid structure; not at all like the massive tents the Scrya usually set up for themselves. However, the sheer diversity of the people, adults and children alike... _'It's not like they could possibly be as crazy as Grandpa, or as perverse as Cousin Ingrid's triplets, or as enthusiastic about their hobbies as Uncle Rik...'_

_'Right?'_

* * *

><p>Nanoha <em>stared<em>. "Uaaah... Your family is... so... so _big_."

Shinta blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah... It kinda is, isn't it? Nanoha-chan?" The girl suddenly slumped against his side. "Nanoha!"

Nanoha, her eyes swirling in and out of focus, took a moment to reply, "What is this, I don't even..." Her already soft voice trailed off, and was immediately buried under worried queries.

Off to one side, Kyon observed the two children Shinta had been blathering on about all week, while the rest of the Clan went to town on the newcomers, completely swamping them. _'Well, the boy seems to be handling it ok, but the girl...'_

"What is all the racket about?" Chisame growled as she strode up to Kyon from the hallway behind him.

Kyon shrugged. "Shinta brought his new friends home to meet the Clan. Cue the usual mayhem." One dark eyebrow lifted as Shinta bellowed for some clear space, while Chisame double-blinked at the same.

"Protective much? Heh, he's never going to live it down," she said with a light smirk. "And he's lucky Miya-kaa isn't here to ream him for shouting at the family like that..."

Kyon grinned. "Inorite?"

Chisame twitched. Damnable subtle digs at her preference for net-life over real life. _'That's it, the next time Uzume-kaa's in the mood, I'm sending her Kyon's way. Or better yet, point her at the Brigade. I wonder what his reaction will be to Nagato in a Rei-plugsuit... Or maybe a _Ree_-plugsuit...'_

Kyon glanced over at his sister's 'fufufu', as a chill ran down his spine. _'That doesn't bode well...'_

* * *

><p>"I found this pretty gem..."<p>

"I recognized it from Shinta-kun's descriptions, but Haruhi..."

"Takeshi-kun said it might be dangerous, but wouldn't explain why..."

"I said something I shouldn't have..."

"It got a little heated, but then..."

"So much green..."

"A field with a huge tree... and then I woke up here."

"As did I."

* * *

><p>Shirou blinked in surprise and set down his cutting knife with a clunk that attracted Miya attention. It wasn't often that Rin showed up to help make dinner.<p>

"Miya... I'm sorry I yelled at you over the phone this afternoon."

"..."

"..."

"W-why are you two so shocked? Hmph! See if I bother apologizing ever again..." Washing her hands, Rin got right to work.

The hip-shove she delivered to Shirou when he didn't immediately resume cutting was well deserved. Really, he shouldn't have continued gaping at her like that!

* * *

><p>And thus, the curtain rises on the story of Devil's Wings. We also get a look into Shinta's character (particularly his snarkiness), a little more on his past (hanging out with Motoko), a bit on his use of Reinforcement and his habit (that I borrowed from ThirdFang's "From Fake Dreams") of Structure Grasping random stuff when bored. Shinta usually practices it on his own body, though. That's part of how he's gotten as advanced with Self-Reinforcement magic as he is.<p>

Oh, Yuuno... You have absolutely no CLUE what you are in for!

Motoko Kusanagi and the related scenes were originally penned by Servius Regis, and his assistance is heartily appreciated. They have been heavily edited by myself to fit into the framework of this chapter, and parts of his work have led in turn to significant editing of my own work. Good synergy we had going.

K.I.W.F. – Kill It With Fire

First draft at: forum. fanfiction topic/88086/59073588/18/#60877696


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